The Rise of the Black Plain

Alina had faced level 27 and 28 opponents so far. Due to that, she hadn't had much of a challenge in those first three fights.

However, she knew that it would not always be that easy for her, and this young woman would not let those first results go to her head.

Each day after her battles, Alina returned to her residence to rest and feed as best she could. After that, she cultivated and constantly trained to take advantage of her discoveries in the fights.

She didn't usually fight hard. As a result, when she began doing this more, this young competitor steadily improved her skills.

After all, it would be one thing to know the theory and another the practice!

Both sides were crucially important, but a cultivator could not reach the top with only one of them. And this young woman had learned that powerful lesson during the time she had been preparing for this selection when she had had her first battle.

And with that, after every fight in that competition, Alina didn't waste the understanding she gained from fighting those opponents, people who were genuinely fighting with everything they had!

Other than that, Alina wasn't doing anything else. She had asked for a few days off from her work so she could concentrate on the competition. After all, at this point, she couldn't divide her attention into two things.

...

Anyway, it was night in the Dry City right now, and Alina was sitting on her bed, in a meditative position, as she calmly cultivated. She had been fighting a few hours ago, so she looked tired this time.

But there were no marks of wounds on this young woman's body. She was just tired from the energy expenditure of the previous fight.

Alina had won, but she still had to face her opponent for about 5 minutes, having used much of her cultivation to defeat him.

That was because, even though she was one level higher than her opponent, the difference between the energy levels of the 3rd stage of cultivation wasn't that big. And to make matters worse, Alina's opponent had an innate battle-type ability, which had made things a little difficult for this young woman.

And as much as Alina's ability seemed very useful for 'destroying' things, it was only valid for objects she touched!

Alina couldn't disintegrate the spiritual energy used to form attacks. And at the same time, she didn't have enough time to touch her opponent's weapon or armor!

She needed time to use her strange ability, so it was tough for her to take advantage of such a thing during high-intensity fights.

'If I could be faster or have a way to contain the enemy, my skill could be more useful in battle…' Alina thought for a moment as she finished cultivating and opened her eyes.

She then saw her bedroom glass door, which overlooked the well-lit street in front of the building in which her family lived. Anyway, seeing that, she kept thinking about how to improve her fighting proficiency.

'Ideally, I could use my innate ability over long distances, but I feel like I can't do that... Will it be that when I have a higher level, can I achieve this result?'

'Maybe it's better if I use the fights against weaker opponents as training! I'll try to take some more risks, so I can attempt to figure out new ways to combat...'

"Maybe I can develop my own method to solve this... I have to find a way to steal the opponent's time so that I can destroy his weapon!" She muttered under her breath as she clenched her fists tightly.

Alina's innate ability was very good at disintegrating things, but it had several limitations that made things difficult for her.

First, she had to touch the objects that would be disintegrated for her ability to work. At least, it was like that as long as her Physique had only the King-grade classification.

Second, there was a limit to what could be disintegrated. Obviously, this young woman's innate ability depended on the spiritual power she could use. In this case, now Alina could at most disintegrate artifacts below medium-level grade-1.

That is, medium-level grade-1 artifacts were objects with toughness to withstand up to the full power of a level 33 cultivator. Because of that, only with a spiritual strength higher than that, Alina's ability could disintegrate objects.

And, of course, she could disintegrate any common item, like the thing she had previously destroyed.

These two problems were what most frustrated the young woman from using her ability against her opponents. And what worried her most was the possibility of facing the soldiers of the Black Plain Army.

Even soldiers of the Soldiers rank received wages good enough to buy spiritual weapons of that rank in Dry City. So, Alina felt that it might be futile to try to use her skill against these individuals.

"The Soldiers certainly have good weapons, and they won't refrain from using them..." She thought to herself.

And that made sense. After all, there were techniques in the Spirit World that required the use of artifacts!

With this, even if a soldier were not going to fight a life and death fight, they would still use their artifacts and put the most pressure on their opponents. After all, they couldn't just abandon matches because their techniques demanded these items.

And given the fact that the fight would be between individuals of equivalent proficiency, then there would be no reason for the organization of the selection to give even more advantages to the competitors. What good would it do if these people didn't have any challenges?

...

Anyway, while Alina was in her house thinking about what she should do, Abby was back from one of the posts on the wall, where she had spent the last hours working.

Abby was dressed in the silver and gold uniform of the Black Plain Army as she walked slowly through the streets of the Dry City.

Her beautiful blue hair was loose in the air, sometimes swaying back and forth due to the gentle breeze that passed through that place.

She had a rather bored look on her face, given the unusual routine she was facing. This young woman liked organizing the services of the future division that would be in charge of training the leaders of the Black Plain. Still, the other part of the job, she didn't enjoy at all.

That was the patrol and the position at the entrances of the city wall.

She had spent a good deal of time walking on the top of the wall, while at other times, she was standing at one of the entrance posts. And given the current situation in the Dry City, there was hardly anything going on most of the time!

So, she felt bored because she didn't have much to do there.

However, Abby understood the purpose of this 'boring' role she had been assigned. After all, there were thousands of soldiers in the army, and she needs to be in contact with at least the strongest ones.

Without it, it would be hard for her to get anything done around here.

Unlike a noble family where its members are naturally in a position of superiority, this was different in young Stuart's army. If Abby wanted to be respected, she would have to prove herself, first meeting and talking to the highest-ranking soldiers and demonstrating her prowess.

Regardless, Abby had arrived at Minos' mansion after a few minutes of walking, which was illuminated at the moment by several lights, forming the local symbol on one of the building's walls.

She then went straight to Minos' office, where she knew her young friend was usually around at this time. In fact, it was almost time for secretary Mia's office hours to end, so given the fact that Abby had already learned about it, she was heading there.

Abby didn't often disturb Minos when he was working. However, after talking to Mia, she had discovered that coming at this time would not cause any problems.

So, after a hard day at work, she just wanted to relax a bit by talking to Minos.

Finally, she walked into his office right after greeting Mia, who was already getting ready to leave.